SOS – Save Our Species

In the simplest terms, the issue of endangered tigers is simply about how to save tigers from extinction in the wild, and from Earth. Saving species is the focus of SOS -Save Our Species (SOS). And SOS is funding projects to save tigers from extinction in the wild.

According to the SOS website, the organization is a global coalition initiated by the three founding partners IUCN, GEF and World Bank. It is their goal to build the biggest species conservation fund, supporting on-the-ground field conservation projects all over the world.

SOS says it will combine the resources and funding experience from the World Bank and GEF (Global Environment Facility), the authoritative science of IUCN and the resources and ingenuity of the private sector to create a mechanism that ensures sufficient funding goes to species conservation projects where and when it will have the most impact.

Some of the tiger projects SOS has already embarked on include:

* SMART: A Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool:

According to the SOS website, this project objective was to implement a new tool – SMART – for planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting law enforcement efforts in a number of breeding source sites across the tiger’s range.

* A Holistic Approach to Improving Human and Tiger Coexistence in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

According to the SOS website this SOS funded project, implemented by the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB), directly addresses human and tiger conflict by ensuring less people are killed by tigers, alternative solutions to killing tigers out of fear are provided, and the law against tiger killing is effective and widely understood.

According to the SOS website this SOS project, implemented by MYCAT, took place in Taman Negara National Park (4343 km2) – the largest and most important protected area in Malaysia, and Sungai Yu Tiger Corridor – the only connection between Taman Negara and the largest forest landscape (20,000 km2) in Peninsular Malaysia. With the Malayan Tiger as an umbrella species, the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT)* strives to save large expanses of living forests rich in biodiversity. Some of the most endangered mammals that will benefit from this project are: tiger, clouded leopard, dhole, Asian elephant, sambar deer, gaur, and serow.

These are just a few examples of the projects which have, or are currently being funded in an effort to save endangered tigers from extinction.

During 2014, a Tiger Journal will follow SOS’ tiger projects, as well as projects from other conservation organizations such as the Global Tiger Initiative, to better understand exactly what is needed to save tigers from extinction in the wild, and on the planet.